Campus Desk :
The six earliest prints of the Bible have been bequeathed to Princeton University by a wealthy benefactor and bibliophile as part of a “treasure house” of rare books that amounts to the largest donation in the Ivy League school’s history.
The Gutenberg bible editions, printed in 1455, exceedingly rare and beautifully illuminated, represent the first substantial edition of books printed by movable metal type. The process revolutionized the distribution of knowledge throughout Europe, and Princeton may yet make the Gutenberg bibles digital.
The trove of books, manuscripts and music worth about $300m was given to the university by William H Scheide, who died in November at age 100. Scheide moved his family’s collection to the university in 1959 from the family home in Titusville, Pennsylvania, where the books were collected over three generations, a Princeton spokesperson said.
Other volumes in the collection include the first printed edition of the American Declaration of Independence, a handwritten speech about slavery by Abraham Lincoln, musical sketchbooks, and manuscripts of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and Wagner, as well as all 47 volumes of music produced by Bach.
The collection also contains Shakespeare’s first, second, third and fourth folios. Shakespeare’s first folio, for example, was the first book of plays published in a format generally reserved for literature. The first folio is sometimes called “incomparably the most important work in the English language”, according to Folger Shakespeare Library.
Princeton history professor and specialist in Renaissance Europe Anthony Grafton called the Sheide collection a “treasure house” for researchers and students. “At its core, the Scheide Library is the richest collection anywhere of the first documents printed in 15th-century Europe,” Grafton said in a statement. “But its magnificent books and manuscripts illuminate many areas, from the printing of the Bible to the ways in which the greatest composers created their music.”
The Scheide family collected the volumes over three generations, beginning with William T Scheide, who made his fortune during the Pennsylvania oil boom and retired at 42. His son, Princeton alumnus John H Scheide, continued the collection.
As a boy, Scheide lived in a room above the family library, which was built to house the already outstanding collection, according to an obituary in the New York Times. He continued building the collection nearly until his death, often with the advice of his wife Judy McCartin Scheide.
“This collection is the fulfilment of the dreams of three generations of Scheide book men,” McCartin Scheide said in a statement from the university. “Having it reside permanently at Princeton is a testament to the joy Bill took in sharing the books, papers, manuscripts, letters, music and posters with others – those were some of his happiest times.
He loved showing people – especially young people who had never seen anything like this before – the collection, letting them touch the books and experience what he called ‘the wow factor’.”
Scheide was also an avid musician, earning his master’s degree in music from Columbia University after studying history at Princeton. He founded the Bach Aria Group, a classical music ensemble dedicated to playing Bach’s lesser known works, based in part with music discovered in his own library.
As a philanthropist, Scheide also financed civil rights work. He was a major funder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s fight in the Brown v Board of Education legal battle, that led the US supreme court to declare segregation in schools unconstitutional.
—The Gurdian
The six earliest prints of the Bible have been bequeathed to Princeton University by a wealthy benefactor and bibliophile as part of a “treasure house” of rare books that amounts to the largest donation in the Ivy League school’s history.
The Gutenberg bible editions, printed in 1455, exceedingly rare and beautifully illuminated, represent the first substantial edition of books printed by movable metal type. The process revolutionized the distribution of knowledge throughout Europe, and Princeton may yet make the Gutenberg bibles digital.
The trove of books, manuscripts and music worth about $300m was given to the university by William H Scheide, who died in November at age 100. Scheide moved his family’s collection to the university in 1959 from the family home in Titusville, Pennsylvania, where the books were collected over three generations, a Princeton spokesperson said.
Other volumes in the collection include the first printed edition of the American Declaration of Independence, a handwritten speech about slavery by Abraham Lincoln, musical sketchbooks, and manuscripts of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and Wagner, as well as all 47 volumes of music produced by Bach.
The collection also contains Shakespeare’s first, second, third and fourth folios. Shakespeare’s first folio, for example, was the first book of plays published in a format generally reserved for literature. The first folio is sometimes called “incomparably the most important work in the English language”, according to Folger Shakespeare Library.
Princeton history professor and specialist in Renaissance Europe Anthony Grafton called the Sheide collection a “treasure house” for researchers and students. “At its core, the Scheide Library is the richest collection anywhere of the first documents printed in 15th-century Europe,” Grafton said in a statement. “But its magnificent books and manuscripts illuminate many areas, from the printing of the Bible to the ways in which the greatest composers created their music.”
The Scheide family collected the volumes over three generations, beginning with William T Scheide, who made his fortune during the Pennsylvania oil boom and retired at 42. His son, Princeton alumnus John H Scheide, continued the collection.
As a boy, Scheide lived in a room above the family library, which was built to house the already outstanding collection, according to an obituary in the New York Times. He continued building the collection nearly until his death, often with the advice of his wife Judy McCartin Scheide.
“This collection is the fulfilment of the dreams of three generations of Scheide book men,” McCartin Scheide said in a statement from the university. “Having it reside permanently at Princeton is a testament to the joy Bill took in sharing the books, papers, manuscripts, letters, music and posters with others – those were some of his happiest times.
He loved showing people – especially young people who had never seen anything like this before – the collection, letting them touch the books and experience what he called ‘the wow factor’.”
Scheide was also an avid musician, earning his master’s degree in music from Columbia University after studying history at Princeton. He founded the Bach Aria Group, a classical music ensemble dedicated to playing Bach’s lesser known works, based in part with music discovered in his own library.
As a philanthropist, Scheide also financed civil rights work. He was a major funder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s fight in the Brown v Board of Education legal battle, that led the US supreme court to declare segregation in schools unconstitutional.
—The Gurdian
